Is there any info available on the units for CSA and USA

[LCcmdr]

Is there any info available on the units? For instance, what do signal, HQ, and medical corp personnel add to a stack?

Only by reading the forum have I discovered flat boats as a great source of supply. Or, that pontoons can be attached to stacks making river crossings easier.

Sorry to play the noob card--but in this game, I'm definitely a toddler....

[ArmChairGeneral]

Look for the colored icons on a unit's card and hover over them tobring up a tooltip that details the special abilities. These can be a little cryptic on the exact mechanics but give you an idea of what they do. If you click on a unit card, the panel in the lower right will switch to the element view, showing the makeup of that unit by element Clicking on the element icons will then pop up a window with detailed stats for that element, and the special ability icons will be there as well. This is also available on the build (gear) menu so you can see what you are buying ahead of time. You can also click on the NATO symbol of a unit to pop up the dtail window of the first element. Repeatedly clicking this will cycle through the unit's elements in order.

[LCcmdr]

Thank you, sir!

My issue as a newbie to these AGEOD games: I don't know or understand how support units assist stacks and/or commanders. For instance, if I want to send troops via naval squadron to invade New Orleans, would I just send regular troops, or woiuld I need to send Marines or sailors or a Brigade consisting of "Flotilla" capable troops?

Any insight is appreciated.

[Cardinal Ape]

Most abilities will work on either the stack level or the unit level.

For invading New Orleans you will want to make use of the ability that Marines or sailors have. The ability works for all elements in the same unit. So, put one marine element in a division and all other elements inside the division (which counts as one unit) will receive the bonus to amphibious actions.

[Cromagnonman]

It can be tough to figure out from the purchasing screen what a given unit will do. However, there is no cost for cancelling a purchase on the turn you make it. So, if you're curious about a unit, you can purchas it and then click on it to more-accurately assess its value. Signal units add a command point to the stack- I find this to usually not be worth the cost, especially after early '62. Hospital units speed cohesion recovery in the stack- this is important especially for units that will be doing a lot of moving and fighting. Balloons are good for helping the stack to detect nearby enemies, but I'm not sure they're worth that much more than cavalry (screening is important). Sharpshooters improve the "initiative" of their unit - higher initiative means getting to shoot before the enemy. Naval and Marines reduce the penalty for attacking across rivers or shorelines - but I'm not sure if this affects the entire stack, unit, or just the naval/marine unit itself. Siege guns improve their stack's chances of damaging a structure they are beseiging, causing damage to the units within, and causing the beseiged force to surrender. Pontoons also add seige points to their stack as well as helping it cross rivers more quickly - you will note than a pontoon unit actually contains a mixture of engineer and pontooneer elements. Coastal guns are slow and can only fire at units on the water (ships or transported land forces) - I doubt (but do not know for sure) that they fire at land forces attacking them from sea

[LCcmdr]

It can be tough to figure out from the purchasing screen what a given unit will do. However, there is no cost for cancelling a purchase on the turn you make it. So, if you're curious about a unit, you can purchas it and then click on it to more-accurately assess its value. Signal units add a command point to the stack- I find this to usually not be worth the cost, especially after early '62. Hospital units speed cohesion recovery in the stack- this is important especially for units that will be doing a lot of moving and fighting. Balloons are good for helping the stack to detect nearby enemies, but I'm not sure they're worth that much more than cavalry (screening is important). Sharpshooters improve the "initiative" of their unit - higher initiative means getting to shoot before the enemy. Naval and Marines reduce the penalty for attacking across rivers or shorelines - but I'm not sure if this affects the entire stack, unit, or just the naval/marine unit itself. Siege guns improve their stack's chances of damaging a structure they are beseiging, causing damage to the units within, and causing the beseiged force to surrender. Pontoons also add seige points to their stack as well as helping it cross rivers more quickly - you will note than a pontoon unit actually contains a mixture of engineer and pontooneer elements. Coastal guns are slow and can only fire at units on the water (ships or transported land forces) - I doubt (but do not know for sure) that they fire at land forces attacking them from sea

Exactly the kind of info that i was needing! Many thanks!


So, I can hit the purchase button, review the stats "on the board", then delete the purchase? If so, that's great.

You've been very helpful; i'm logging hours of play time but no seeing much success. Is this normal?

[Cromagnonman]

Yes, the learning curve is steep. I recommend playing as the Union and avoiding being overly aggressive. And feel free to go back a turn if you find a big mistake (and liked how things were going otherwise). You can make the campaign settings very forgiving, even to the point of making the AI passive - just so you can get used to purchasing, supply, organization, replacements, etc.

Also, a unit of engineers speeds a stack's entrenchment once they stop moving. Naval engineers repair damaged ships faster. I do not know if they have to be in the same stack as the ship to be repaired, or only in the same structure. Lastly, supply units carry extra supply, pull supply from depots, and augment the shooting effectiveness of units in their stack.

[Cromagnonman]

Surprisingly, you probably don't even need Marines or Sailors in your New Orleans force. You should be able to make an uncontested landing near New Orleans (eg Fort Pike) and thence march overland to the Crescent City. However, you will likely want a powerful force that can stand on its own surrounded by hostiles for a long time. Thus it may be beneficial to include sharpshooters & elite units in your divisions, engineers, and an Army HQ. The latter acts as several of the previously-described specialists in 1, improving command ability and cohesion recovery.
Heavy artillery may not be very effective in the swamps (they probably won't be able to outrange smoothbores), and you will already be slowed enough without bringing along siege guns or Rodmans. That said, you probably won't be moving much once you arrive in the Big Easy. You may want to be able to split your invasion force in two: a covering force to hold the city and a mobile force to capture the river-mouth forts and raid the local environs. For this reason you may want to bring 2 supply units each with 2 elements, rather than 1 unit of 4 elements, allowing both forces to have wagons enhancing their fire ability. Beyond New Orleans, however, the payoff is small. There is not much worth capturing nearby (perhaps Baton Rouge), and you will be surrounded. It is probably best to no more than a couple divisions to hold the city, and focus on more decisive theaters (like Virginia).

[LCcmdr]

Good to know.

And, yes, passive and easy AI is a must. I'm not doing badly; I just get bogged down into a drawn out contest. I don't understand how the CSA can produce so much more than I did (as the CSA formerly) when I'm playing against them. Does the AI get extra help?

[Cromagnonman]

Check and see if they are using more political options than you - you can also load their saves and see what their income is like. Usually I find the secesh AI flush with cash and conscripts, but lagging way behind in war supply. I find that the AI often parks large forces inside structes, allowing the human to swoop in for a seige - after a rushed (& predictable) battle to lift the seige, a heavy blow can be dealt to the enemy.

[ArmChairGeneral]

The AI does not get extra help. That they seem to have more money than you can be due to many things, not least of which is inefficient play by the AI, as Cromagnonman points out. Having lots of cash may indicate that Athena has not done enough to resolve the WS bottleneck and unusable cash is piling up. Humans (and sometimes Athena) try to keep their resource production and spending choices balanced to ensure maximum throughput.

Another possible explanation is that as a newbie you are being distracted by all the cool things you can buy and are not making optimum build decisions due to the bewildering array of choices. This is perfectly normal, you will soon learn the ins-and-out. Some pointers on efficient building: Buy a lot of artillery and a lot of infantry and skimp on the navy; as the Union you already have a big navy, as the CSA you can't afford to build one, and the navy is not going to be decisive for either side no matter what you spend on it. Better bang-for-your-buck then to build extra divisions or max out your artillery build pool with those resources. The Union has Training Officers, use them: between them they can train up to six inexpensive volunteers into line infantry (1/3rd of a division) per turn. Admittedly this involves micromanagement, but it WILL free up lots of resources you can spend elsewhere. Prioritize: determine where you want to apply force (typically in the East) and make sure you are building heavily in these areas; max out your available CPs there and then build ahead for the the command structure unlocks in Fall 61 and Spring 62.

You also need (as the CSA especially) to make sure you are improving your production through industrial spending, increasing loyalty in high production regions and putting brigs or transports in the appropriate oceangoing boxes. Using the Bond and Taxation options generates loads of cash, but you have to make sure you have enough WS and CS to go with it or the cash just sits there. Use the navy that you do have to hamper the enemy shipping or increase the blockade by placing warships in the appropriate shipping boxes, denying them resources.

[LCcmdr]

...Better bang-for-your-buck then to build extra divisions or max out your artillery build pool with those resources.

....Prioritize: determine where you want to apply force (typically in the East) and make sure you are building heavily in these areas;

max out your available CPs there and then build ahead for the the command structure unlocks in Fall 61 and Spring 62.

You also need (as the CSA especially) ... putting brigs or transports in the appropriate oceangoing boxes.

What do you mean by this first statement: "max out the arty pool?"


So, CSA actually has to build brigs and transports to put into the blockade boxes to make money? I read the manual but must have missed that. Any more info on raising cash and resourses would be helpful!!

E.G., when I build flat boats and convert them to supply depots, is that increasing GS only or $ & GS?

many thanks

[Captain_Orso]

What do you mean by this first statement: "max out the arty pool?"

I believe ACG means, you should buy as much of the artillery from their unit pools as you can--especially before their build-locations are taken by the Union (Kentucky!!).

So, CSA actually has to build brigs and transports to put into the blockade boxes to make money? I read the manual but must have missed that. Any more info on raising cash and resourses would be helpful!!

Transports are only good for escorting commerce-raiders in the Shipping Box, for the South. You cannot use them in the Shipping Box for a Naval Transportation Pool (for moving supplies from coastal harbor to coastal harbor), and if you put them into a Blockade Box, because you want to earn blockade-running money, they will be sitting ducks and you will lose them.

You don't not have to put any brigs (Blockade Runners) into the Blockade Boxes. You will earn income without them, but they will bring you extra income; and nobody ever complains about that .

You get a handful of them for free per events, but you may also purchase them. How effective that is depends on your ROI (Return On Investment).

Firstly, brigs cost money, WSU (War SUpply), and CC (Conscript Companies); so purchasing them to do Blockade Running is an investment, which only starts to pay off once they have earned their own cost, and that could take many months. Additionally, the more Blockade Runners you have in the Blockade Boxes, the less they earn individually, because of Diminishing Returns (DR).

I unfortunately cannot tell you how to calculate that, because I don't know the formulas for calculating their per-turn-income, which is not only regulated by DR, but also your current NM (National Moral); the higher your NM, the better the returns.

E.G., when I build flat boats and convert them to supply depots, is that increasing GS only or $ & GS?

Neither, Flatboats are transport units, which can carry supplies and troops. When you use a Flatboat to build a Depot the Flatboat unit itself is returned to the build-pool, but the resources used to build it are not returned to their respective resource pools. You do however get a Depot. So the cost of building that Depot, is the cost of building the Flatboat.

The Depot itself creates a very nominal amount of GS each turn, but not enough to be of importance. Depots pull supplies from other Depots or supply sources. So you want to build Depots where you need supplies, and nowhere else.

Remember, you don't want your Depots to fall into enemy hands, as they will give the enemy all the supplies contained within and save him from having to build a Depot himself.

many thanks

I will let ACG collect that

[ArmChairGeneral]

I believe ACG means, you should buy as much of the artillery from their unit pools as you can--especially before their build-locations are taken by the Union (Kentucky!!).

...

I will let ACG collect that

Yes, that's what I meant, and both your and Cromagnonman's advice is spot-on as always, so I can't hog all the thanks.

LCcmdr,

To clarify, CSA Brigs in the Blockade boxes will generate a small amount of money or WS per turn. Brigs are not cheap though, and there are diminishing returns to building lots of new ones, but definitely use the ones you already have, it can help a lot to get you over the hump the first year. Similarly, the Union can place transports in the Shipping box to get some kind of effect (I don't know the exact effect, I don't usually play Union, maybe it is just increasing the ocean supply-movement pool). As the CSA you can place Warships in the Shipping box and they will cost your opponent some money each turn by abstractly preying on their shipping. Similarly, as the Union you can increase forces in the blockade box which will decrease CSA production in regions with harbors.

Also, the most important support units are the HQ and the Supply Wagons. For the same price as a Signal Corps and a Field Hospital, the HQ does both AND increases the speed your elements gain experience, which is very important to the CSA since they don't get the Training Officers that the Union gets. They do not have to be in an Army stack to have these effects. In terms of wagons, you need at least one (four element) wagon for every two full divisions you have, more if you are going to be walking around away from your depots. Both units are expensive but worth every penny. Pontoons are also very useful, but the other two take priority.

[LCcmdr]

This is great stuff! Thanks again!!!!

[Rod Smart]

Exactly the kind of info that i was needing! Many thanks!


So, I can hit the purchase button, review the stats "on the board", then delete the purchase? If so, that's great.

You've been very helpful; i'm logging hours of play time but no seeing much success. Is this normal?

Yes, that is normal. If you're playing smart as the Union, you won't see serious success until the overwhelming numbers get into play in late '62, which is then bogged down by winter, so you won't start destroying Southern armies until Summer of '63. There are a lot of hours of playtime from April '61 until the destruction of the Army of Kentucky in July '63.


Some tips that I always use regarding special units:
- Purchase every Army HQ unit. Put in your big stacks.
- every division gets one sharpshooter. That gives them the first shot in the shooting phase. More than one is a waste
- every division gets one marine or sailor, until you run out of marines or sailors to buy. That helps the division cross rivers, and they are a sturdy unit by themselves. More than one is a waste
- every division gets one "elite" unit, until you run out of elite units. More than one is a waste. Its tempting to keep Corcoran attached to his Irish Brigade, don't do that. Spread those elite units out.
- Any large unit that will be fighting gets a hospital unit. Army HQ units double as hospital units, only use one, more than one is a waste
- every large stack gets a supply unit. Large stacks going into enemy territory get at least two. You may not need to buy any, just shuffle the ones you have.
- If there aren't enough Army HQs to go around, buy a signal unit. That adds a command point, which is useful for squeezing an extra division into a corps.
- Pontoon units are useful, but not overpowering. Buy one each for your large stacks in Virginia, more than one in a stack is a waste
- Engineers and balloons are useful, but your resources could be spent better off elsewhere. Maybe late in the game when you already have all the armies your going to need, fill out the corps stacks with these units.

Hover over the unit description for more information.
Pay attention to how things work, some work at the unit level (sharpshooters), some at the stack level (pontoons), some at the Army level (generals abilities apply to subordinates), some at the state level (the generals with the yellow flag), and some not at all (generals that need to be in charge to have bonus apply).

[LCcmdr]

Yes, that is normal. If you're playing smart as the Union, you won't see serious success until the overwhelming numbers get into play in late '62, which is then bogged down by winter, so you won't start destroying Southern armies until Summer of '63. There are a lot of hours of playtime from April '61 until the destruction of the Army of Kentucky in July '63.


Some tips that I always use regarding special units:
- Purchase every Army HQ unit. Put in your big stacks.
- every division gets one sharpshooter. That gives them the first shot in the shooting phase. More than one is a waste
- every division gets one marine or sailor, until you run out of marines or sailors to buy. That helps the division cross rivers, and they are a sturdy unit by themselves. More than one is a waste
- every division gets one "elite" unit, until you run out of elite units. More than one is a waste. Its tempting to keep Corcoran attached to his Irish Brigade, don't do that. Spread those elite units out.
- Any large unit that will be fighting gets a hospital unit. Army HQ units double as hospital units, only use one, more than one is a waste
- every large stack gets a supply unit. Large stacks going into enemy territory get at least two. You may not need to buy any, just shuffle the ones you have.
- If there aren't enough Army HQs to go around, buy a signal unit. That adds a command point, which is useful for squeezing an extra division into a corps.
- Pontoon units are useful, but not overpowering. Buy one each for your large stacks in Virginia, more than one in a stack is a waste
- Engineers and balloons are useful, but your resources could be spent better off elsewhere. Maybe late in the game when you already have all the armies your going to need, fill out the corps stacks with these units.

Hover over the unit description for more information.
Pay attention to how things work, some work at the unit level (sharpshooters), some at the stack level (pontoons), some at the Army level (generals abilities apply to subordinates), some at the state level (the generals with the yellow flag), and some not at all (generals that need to be in charge to have bonus apply).

This is fabulous info, and it's exactly what I need!!!!

Thanks to each of you for helping me "get" this monstrously, wonderful game.

Cheers

[ArmChairGeneral]

Rod Smart makes an excellent point about spreading special abilities around: special abilities with the same icon do not ever "stack" with each other.